Wild Child is a 2008 teen comedy film starring Emma Roberts, Alex Pettyfer and the late Natasha Richardson.
Plot
The film starts with Poppy Moore (Emma Roberts) and her friends trashing all her dad's girlfriend's stuff in a wild prank. When her father angrily arrives, he tells her that Poppy is sending her to boarding school in England. Arriving at the school, called Abbey Mount, Poppy meets the headmistress Mrs. Kingsley (Natasha Richardson), head girl Harriet Bentley (Georgia King), and her 'buddy' Kate (Kimberley Nixon). She is miserable in her new life, as she does not fit in and has no friends.
After getting dirty water on her by Harriet's "maid", Poppy and Kate become semi-friends. Discovering that the girls dinosaur phones were decoys, Kate lets Poppy use hers to call Ruby. When Ruby sees the message she is disgusted and goes to sleep with Roddy. She reveals that her mother had died several years ago, her roommates decide to help her get expelled. Together, they carry out several pranks which gradually brings them closer together. When none of their plans work they decide to seduce the headmistress's son Freddie, who is strictly forbidden to fraternize with any of the girls. After dancing with Freddie at the school dance, Poppy trips and hits her head, which leads Freddie to take the concussed girl outside for air, where he asks her out on a date.
The next day, Poppy discovers her talent for lacrosse and whips the school's team into shape, getting them into the finals. On the date Poppy finds herself falling for Freddie. They kiss before Poppy returns to school, where she finds her roommates reading an email supposedly sent by Poppy stating that she thought all of her new friends were losers. She then finds that Freddie has been given a similar email and is thereafter ignored by her friends. Poppy, with no one else to turn to, sneaks down to the cook's room and rings Ruby, who accidentally reveals how much she dislikes Poppy. Feeling even more alone, Poppy starts playing with her lighter, accidentally setting a curtain alight. Hearing footsteps, she quickly puts out the fire and runs off. A few minutes later, she looks out her window to see a fire, and wakes the school. When they find that Drippy is missing, Poppy runs into the burning school to rescue her. After the fire is put out, Freddie finds her lighter and gives it back to her, refusing to listen to what happened. Just as she realizes that she no longer wants to leave, Poppy goes to the headmistress and confesses.
While Poppy waits for the Honour Court, who will decide if she should be expelled, Freddie finds her crying and becomes convinced that the fire was an accident. During the hearing, Poppy tells her story while her roommates find out that Poppy didn't send the emails. Going to the court, they stand up for Poppy and Harriet accidentally confesses to restarting the fire after Poppy had put it out. The movie is left off at the lacrosse finals. Poppy's father comes to the game and is shocked by Poppy's dramatic change of appearance and how much she looks like her mother. Abbey Mount wins the Lacrosse finals and Harriet is expelled. Some months later, Poppy and her friends (including Freddie) are in the process of relaxing in Malibu. Poppy ignores Ruby's phone calls, now fully aware that she was not the friend she thought. The film ends as they prepare to jump off the cliff that helped her towards finding herself and making proper friends.
Cast
Production
The film was filmed at Cobham Hall, Kent, Balls Park, Hertford, and the centre of Haworth, England and on location in Los Angeles, California. Children from surrounding schools were selected to be extras in scenes on location at Balls Park, Hertford. Oxford University Lacrosse and Cranbrook Lacrosse Club provided a group of lacrosse playing extras and some referees for the film. Emma Roberts dyed her hair dark brown for this role, however for the beginning part of the film she wears a long, blonde wig. The wrap party was held on September 4, 2007 in London, before some of the cast went to Los Angeles to finish filming.
To celebrate the release of Wild Child, Universal Pictures staged the Wild Child Pink Premiere at the Braehead Xscape in Glasgow, Scotland on Wednesday 30 July. Both stars of the film, Emma Roberts and Alex Pettyfer, attended.
This film features actress Natasha Richardson's final on-screen performance.
Reception
Wild Child was released in the U.K on August 15 taking 5th place at the box office with $2,196,366[clarification needed] from 359 cinemas with an average of $6,118[clarification needed]. In its 4th weekend, it dropped to 12th place. As of November 2, 2008, Wild Child has made an unexpected $8,235,794[clarification needed]. In Australia, Wild Child was released September 18 taking 4th place with only 93 theatres, making $426,066[clarification needed]. The following week, it made a 60% increase with $680,188[clarification needed] but still slipped to 6th place. On the October 16, Wild Child fell to 11th. As of November 14, 2008, Wild Child's release in Australia has yet again surprised officials with its success making $3,272,241[clarification needed]. The film has been released in many other countries, proving popular in some: Netherlands ($1,553,825[clarification needed]) and not so popular in others. As of January 4, 2008, the film has grossed $19,786,125[clarification needed] worldwide but is expected to reach $20 million[clarification needed] once released in bigger markets: France, Germany and Russia around December/January. Universal had planned a North American release in the summer of 2009, but cancelled it amd chose to release the movie directly to DVD.
Wild Child has a 33% "rotten" rating at Rotten Tomatoes, based on 21 reviews with the consensus that "More mild than wild. This tween comedy mess falls flat on its face due to poor characters, poor direction and poor jokes".[2] The Sun Online gave the film 2/5 saying "WILD? More like mild, unless you think short skirts and “horse face” put-downs are outrageous." Though Urban Cinefile gave Wild Child a much more favourable review stating "The film has an energy and honesty about it: it's lively, funny and smart and the characters are appealing."
DVD release
Wild Child was released on DVD in the United Kingdom on December 8 2008. In Australia it was released on January 15 2009. In the United States it was released direct to DVD on November 17, 2009.
Editing
Wild Child was reportedly written to be classified 15 by the BBFC but was edited to a 12A for moderate language and sex references and by the MPAA to a PG-13 by for some coarse and suggestive content, sex references and language - all involving teens. People have speculated which scenes may have been cut due to a lapse in the story, such as Poppy retrieving a 'mystery' bag from a bottleshop which was then drunk by the girls before the dance. It is also expected that some scenes may have either been re-shot or dubbed to eliminate coarse language. Other scenes could have possibly been extended including the scene with Ruby and her boyfriend going to the pool.
Soundtrack
Wild Child: The Movie Soundtrack Party Album is the soundtrack for the film of the same name, Wild Child. The soundtrack was available on United Kingdom and Australia on August 18, 2008. In United States the soundtrack hasn't been released and it's expected for early 2009.
Tracklisting
- "Shut Up and Drive" - Rihanna
- "Let Me Think About It" - Ida Corr Ft. DJ Fedde le Grand
- "About You Now" - Sugababes
- "Say It Right" - Nelly Furtado
- "I Know UR Girlfriend Hates Me" - Annie
- "If This Is Love" - The Saturdays
- "Heartbreaker" - will.i.am ft. Cheryl Cole
- "Sweet About Me" - Gabriella Cilmi
- "Can't Speak French" - Girls Aloud
- "Murder on the Dancefloor" - Sophie Ellis-Bextor
- "Ice Cream" - New Young Pony Club
- "Kiss With A Fist" - Florence And The Machine
- "Foundations" - Kate Nash
- "You Think I Don't Care" - Jack McManus
- "Come Around" - Timbaland ft. M.I.A.
- "Tambourine" - Eve
- "Real Wild Child" - Sarah Harding
- "Chasing Pavements" - Adele
Other songs
The following songs appeared on the movie and on trailers, although they were not included on the soundtrack for the film.
References
External links
